Should I reinterview with Bain?
Hi All! I'm a first year MBA student at Top 5 MBA program. This Winter I got invited to Round 1 interviews with Bain (as well as BCG and McK) for summer associate role in their San Francisco office. Unfortunately, an accident landed me in the hospital the week before interviews. I was lucky that i didn't suffer any permanent damage and made it back to classes 2 weeks later.
I was really interested in Bain as they seemed like a great cultural fit for me and I THOUGHT it was a mutual feeling as Bain was nice enough to give me a Round 1 interview in their nearest office after I came back to classes (total of 4 weeks after my original interview was suppose to happen). I knocked it out of the park (in their words) during the interviews and was feeling pretty good about my prospects. However, next week I got a call from the recruiter that the San Francisco office is "full" so I wouldn't be moving on to Round 2. Ding!
Now, I learned that I'm welcome to interview with Bain again next Fall but it's left me a little confused. If Bain thinks I'm good enough to get reinterviewed next Fall, why did they end up dinging me this year after my "you knocked it out of the park" Round 1 interview? If they were genuinely impressed with my performance, why did an office being "full" end my interview advancement? Would adding 1 more summer intern to a full office really be a huge deal? Why not ask me to consider another office that wasn't full?
I can imagine that their emphasis on regional/local staffing makes managing heads per office a big deal but big enough that they would turn away a candidate they liked just to ask them to reinterview a few months later? I'm wondering if they were just paying me platitudes and in actuality, they're not really interested in hiring me but just giving me the interview time to advance their relationship with my school?
Very confused! Any help out there?
Probably because they like you, but your accident screwed up their recruiting timeline.
remember that MBB offices have a turnover close to 25 %, which means that there are a lot of positions that will be open next year that arent open this year
I think you're overthinking this. They have a target number of summers they want, and they filled all the spots before you could do the second round interviews. End of story. (You might not think it's a big deal to add one more summer, but in an office where I'm guessing they have may be 10-20 MBA summers, that is a big deal.)-
And I also think you're reading too much into the "knocked it out of the park" comment. Yes, you clearly did well, and they liked you. But after all it was a first round interview, and many candidates knock it out of the park. There was still a good chance that you would've not gotten the offer even if you had done the second round interview on a normal recruiting timeline.
I also think it's ridiculous to think that Bain would do this just to "advance their relationship with Your school." This kind of decisions are made quite often in recruiting, and people whose school start late get shafted because of it.
With that said, I don't know why you wouldn't interview with them again in the fall. Granted that you liked them (which it sounds like you did), why wouldn't you give it another go? It sucked what happened this time around, but it happens. You shouldn't let that prevent you from trying again when you get another chance?
I can feel your pain man. That said, SF and NYC are notoriously competitive for MBB, SF even more so due to its smaller office sizes (granted Bain SF is a decent size). A lot of sponsored kids get first crack at office preferences and pick SF and NYC so it makes less spots open to new hires. Also, Bain more than BCG and McK is known for being more sensitive to a specific location and they don't like people going to a city they don't want who then later try to transfer offices after a year or two (from what I've been told by recruiters). So that is probably why you didn't get another bite at the apple (why would the Dallas partner want to interview you vs someone that put Dallas 75%?). Also, not to burst you bubble, as I'm sure you truly did well but its not like its just adding you and only makes the class one person bigger. I'm sure there are tons of people that were super close and totally qualified but at the end of the day it is just a numbers game. A lot of luck goes into these things. The fact that the said to reinterview is a positive sign. Not everyone that gets first or second rounds as a first year gets invited back as a second year. You are obviously capable and pretty close so with some luck you might just get it in the fall. If you are die hard Bain though come fall you might want to talk to the recruiter about the SF office and how full it is and whether or not you should pref another office before you submit your application.
I feel you're overthinking this. There's no reason not to interview w/ them again, especially since you did so well in the internship first round.
I also think opening up a new spot when they're full isn't that simple of a process. It requires increasing their budget, requiring approvals... negatively impacting some guy's P&L, which may even pull down their bonus. I.e. probably a lot of bureaucracy/politics and not a simple decision by the recruiter.
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